NCTE Leading and Learning Series - National Council of Teachers of English

Attention all leaders and aspiring leaders! Join NCTE for a leadership series exploring a variety of timely topics from NCTE-affiliated experts in the field. This series will explore new policy briefs, share how to leverage literacy for advocacy purposes, and discuss issues most top-of-mind for educators that have been dominating the news cycle.

 

 

PAST SESSIONS

Leading and Learning: A Series Introduction with Ernest Morrell

Tuesday, May 30, at 5 p.m. ET

NCTE kicks off its Leading and Learning series with an overview from Ernest Morrell, head of the NCTE James R. Squire Office of Policy Research in English Language Arts. Morrell will introduce this summer’s series, grounded in the Squire Office’s new policy briefs.

Read the briefs

 

 

Ernest Morrell is the Coyle Professor in Literacy Education and director of the Center for Literacy Education at the University of Notre Dame. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association, and past president of NCTE. Dr. Morrell has been annually ranked among the top 200 university-based education scholars in the RHSU Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings published by Education Week. He has authored more than 100 articles and book chapters and fifteen books. His scholarly interests include literacy studies, English education, critical pedagogy, media and popular culture, and the African Diaspora.

 

 

Leading and Learning: Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacies with Gholdy Muhammad

Wednesday, May 31, at 5 p.m. ET

This session will delve into the new NCTE James R. Squire Office brief Culturally and Historically Responsive Education by Gholdy Muhammad. In this talk, Muhammad offers a unique culturally and historically responsive approach toward the goal of cultivating genius, justice, and joy in education. This approach is essential for accelerating the growth of all students, and particularly youth of color, who traditionally have been underserved in learning standards, policies, and school practices. She will present her CHRL equity framework, called the HILL Model, to help educators teach toward developing students’ histories, identities, literacies, and liberation. The HILL Model consists of five pursuits in teaching and learning:

o Identity Development—Helping youth to make sense of who they are and understand others.

o Skill Development—Helping youth to develop proficiencies across the content areas and state learning standards.

o Intellectual Development—Helping youth to gain new knowledge that is set into the context of the world.

o Criticality—Helping youth to name, understand, question, and disrupt oppression in the world.

o Joy—Helping youth to uplift beauty, aesthetics, truth, and personal space fulfillment within humanity.

Participants will learn and understand history and policy as well as personal and instructional factors that justify the need and purpose for culturally and historically responsive literacy. Educators will be encouraged and motivated to be more inclusive in their teaching and policy of these five collective pursuits while learning the importance of integrating cultural, racial, linguistic, and historical responsiveness into their learning goals, lesson plans, and the texts they use to teach.

 

 

Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an associate professor of literacy, language, and culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has previously served as a classroom teacher, literacy specialist, school district administrator, curriculum director, and school board president. She studies Black historical excellence in education, intending to reframe curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading academic journals and books. She has also received numerous national awards and is the author of the bestselling book Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy. She also coauthored Black Girls’ Literacies: An Edited Volume. Her Culturally and Historically Responsive Education model has been adopted across thousands of US schools and districts across Canada. In 2022 and 2023, she was named among the top 1% of Edu-Scholar Public Influencers due to her impact on policy and practice. She has also received numerous awards from national organizations and universities. She was awarded the American Educational Research Association Division K Early Career Award and was named the 2021 NCTE Outstanding Elementary Educator in the English Language Arts. She has led a federal grant with the United States Department of Education to study culturally and historically responsive literacy in STEM classrooms. Her new book, Unearthing Joy, is the sequel to Cultivating Genius and provides a practical guide for putting culturally and historically responsive education into curricular practice.

 

 

UPCOMING SESSIONS

 

Leading and Learning: Session #2 based on Digital Platforms and the ELA Classroom, a new NCTE Squire Office Brief

Wednesday, July 19, at 4 p.m. ET

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This session will be led by Roberto de Roock (UC-Santa Cruz); Bethany Monea (George Mason University); Phil Nichols (Baylor University); Jessica Pandya (CSU-Dominguez Hills); and Anna Smith (Illinois State University). These presenters worked on the new NCTE Squire Office brief Digital Platforms and the ELA Classroom, also authored by Robert Jean LeBlanc (University of Lethbridge), Earl Aguilera (CSU-Fresno), Sarah Burriss (Vanderbilt University), Will Fassbender (Montana State University), Brad Robinson (Texas State University), and Amy Stornaiuolo (University of Pennsylvania).

 

 

Leading and Learning: Session #3 based on Culturally Responsive Approaches to the Teaching of Literature in Secondary English Classrooms, a new NCTE Squire Office Brief

Wednesday, July 26, at 4 p.m. ET

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This session will led by Nicole Mirra (The State University of New Jersey), Michael Macaluso (University of Notre Dame), Jodene Morrell (University of Notre Dame), and Lisa Scherff (South Fort Myers High School), and based on their new NCTE Squire Office brief Culturally Responsive Approaches to the Teaching of Literature in Secondary English Classrooms.